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Susan SmithSusan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ newsletters and blogs. She writes on a number of topics, including but not limited to geospatial, architecture, engineering and construction. As many technologies evolve and occasionally merge, Susan finds herself uniquely situated to be able to cover diverse topics with facility. « Less

Susan SmithSusan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More »

InnerSpace Takes on the Commercial Real Estate Market

InnerSpace is the first scalable, turnkey solution to deliver instant indoor mapping, wayfinding and analytics, is delivering its offering to the commercial real estate space, according to Cerys Goodall of Goodall Communications, representing InnerSpace.

Cities such as Toronto, New York and Chicago are to meet client demands and demonstrate the value of their properties. A critical insight that has been near-impossible to capture is how people use and interact with commercial properties – this lack of intel has made it incredibly difficult to assess and market the true value a property owner or manager can deliver.

Our questions for Goodall include the following:

What is the CRE space (commercial retail?)?

The commercial real estate industry often struggles to quantify the value of its locations with hard data. What is the value of one store vs. another by the square foot? How can properties be built and managed, to maximize the experience of their tenants? And how can property owners and managers differentiate their experience from the competition?

With InnerSpace, we provide the hard data they need to validate the price/square-foot, and to innovate within their buildings. That might be offering security solutions for tenants, wayfinding applications for shoppers, or indoor e911 solutions to their local community.

What is the inspiration behind Innerspace?

James and Jason, the co-Founders and co-CEOs of InnerSpace were at the MET and couldn’t find each other. They realized that while if they were outdoors it would be very easy to use GPS and Google Maps, indoors their experience was in the dark ages.

What is the underlying GIS framework of Innerspace?

The InnerSpace platform is a turnkey solution that uses autonomous sensors we have developed (we call each sensor “Johnny5”). These sensors instantly connect with each other and begin mapping a space to provide instant and always up-to-date 3D renderings of a building. From there, the sensors provide heat mapping and wayfinding to understand how people and things move within the space. This technology is based on common LiDAR, Bluetooth and WiFi technologies.

Our location intelligence platform is where the real value is stored. We solve indoor location problems for the largest technology companies, government agencies and software companies who are creating amazing services. Our open API provides these companies with the fundamental indoor mapping data and location data they need to power their software. Without InnerSpace, these companies would struggle with scale.

Do you see potential beyond retail and work spaces for this product?

Absolutely! Our company is currently focused on building solutions for retail, warehousing, commercial property, and healthcare facilities that want to better understand how to deliver better experiences for the people in their spaces, or how things – like equipment – is being utilized. But that is just the beginning. Construction companies wanting to simplifying job quotes, security companies wanting to manage access to buildings, and even gaming apps creating augmented reality scenarios all require the data we provide to create their platforms.

Can this technology be effectively used for tracking undesirable people in the buildings?

Security is an area we are exploring. With the new e911 legislation that will require increased accuracy and access from emergency personnel to those who need them, we see great opportunities to help deliver accurate positioning of those in need.

This can easily extend to security applications where you can see if people are in your building after hours, or if there is a security breach in one of your locations.

How would you go about developing a campaign to keep retailers from losing out to online retailers?

For years, brick and mortar shops have been short-changed and losing an uphill battle with online retailers. This has largely been due to the fact that online marketers have been able to validate their sales – cost of acquisition, bounce rates, click-throughs, etc.

With our data, brick and mortar stores will be able to compete directly with online retailers. They will know how many people entered the store, saw a display, converted to purchase, and more.

Additionally, they will also know if a person came to the physical store, but decided to buy online. Something that will tie the two experiences together and we think, transform how psychical and online stores transform their merchandising efforts.

How has the technology helped Steelcase – has it helped them change interior spaces, develop better workflows for workers?

As Steelcase looks to gain a deeper understanding of the changing workplace, InnerSpace provides Steelcase with additional data on workplace behaviour and how space design influences how people work. Having experienced the pain of deploying beacons, Steelcase evaluated InnerSpace primarily based on the speed of deployment – could Steelcase stand up a complete indoor mapping & location platform in less time than beacons. The results proved our indoor mapping and location data was not only more accurate over the lifetime of a space but required only minutes to install.

Who are your main competitors?

There are no companies in our space who provide an end-to-end platform delivering 3D maps, location, positioning, and analytics. Typically, each of these things is done by separate companies. Additionally, we view ourselves as a partner to companies who are trying to create customer-facing solutions like wayfinding apps, security solutions, tracking platforms – we want to provide the physical-to-digital data that helps other companies quickly deliver on their innovative solutions.

What is the pricing of InnerSpace and how is it competitive?

Our subscription-based platform is pennies on the square foot. We don’t want our customers to incur capital costs, or to maintain technology. Instead, we ask that they subscribe to our platform and focus on innovating for their customer.